Chapter 24: Accelerating Global Interaction, Since 1945

1. During the twentieth century, an increasingly __________ web of cultural influences, political relationships, and economic transactions cut across the world's many peoples.

a. dense

b. invisible

c. fair

d. European

e. weak

A

2. Global interaction vastly accelerated its pace after __________.

a. World War I

b. World War II

c. President Roosevelt initiated his New Deal reforms

d. the end of the Cold War

e. the start of the Great Depression

B

3. The Bretton Woods conference laid the foundation for __________.

a. colonial independence

b. the cold war

c. postwar globalization

d. world peace

e. the founding of Israel

C

4. In the 1970s, business and political leaders in capitalist countries came to view the entire world as a __________.

a. threatening place

b. single market

c. political minefield

d. disappointment

e. missed opportunity

B

5. Central to the acceleration of economic globalization have been huge companies known as __________.

a. start-ups

b. imperial trading companies

c. transnational corporations

d. wholly-owned subsidiaries

e. utility companies

C

6. Despite overall improvements in per capita production and income, life expectancies, literacy, and more, the gap between rich and poor has __________ during the era of globalization.

a. increased slightly

b. increased tremendously

c. stayed the same

d. fluctuated wildly

e. shrunk slightly

B

7. The World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle in 1999 was met with __________.

a. cheering crowds

b. indifference

c. huge, violent protests

d. curious inquiries

e. a lot of media hype

C

8. In the final quarter of the twentieth century, the United States faced growing __________ competition from other countries.

a. military

b. musical

c. reproductive

d. athletic

e. economic

E

9. In the second half of the twentieth century, __________ emerged as a major and powerful expression of the global culture of liberation.

a. communism

b. democracy

c. drugs

d. feminism

e. neo-liberalism

D

10. The women's liberation movement of the late 1960s and 1970s in Europe and North America was mostly composed of __________ women.

a. black working-class

b. white working-class

c. black middle-class

d. white middle-class

e. all races and classes of

D

11. African feminists often rejected American and European feminists' emphasis on __________.

a. collective action

b. the family

c. individualism and sexuality

d. marriage

e. poverty

C

12. In Kenya, women found empowerment through tens of thousands of small __________ groups.

a. revolutionary

b. women's liberation

c. underground

d. self-help

e. athletic

D

13. The term "fundamentalism" originated in __________.

a. the Islamic world

b. India

c. Africa

d. England

e. the United States

E

14. One of the founders of Islamic fundamentalism, Sayyid Qutb, saw Western culture as __________.

a. very attractive

b. easily overcome

c. seductive and poisonous

d. incomprehensible

e. pious

C

15. Islamic fundamentalist groups from Indonesia to North Africa provided the _________ that many third-world governments offered inadequately or not at all.

a. social services

b. athletic competitions

c. opportunities for career advancement

d. entertainment

e. police force

A

16. For some Islamic revolutionaries, the very existence of __________ was illegitimate.

a. the United States

b. Christianity

c. the European Union

d. Israel

e. the United Nations

D

17. Osama bin Laden created al-Qaeda to help fight against ____________.

a. the United States in Lebanon

b. Israel in the West Bank

c. the Soviet presence in Afghanistan

d. the U.S. presence in Iraq

e. Iran in Iraq

C

18. The huge increase in carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, combined with the loss of large amounts of trees from the earth's surface, has caused __________.

a. global warming

b. global cooling

c. continental drift

d. little impact

e. immediate and concerted action from the world's most powerful countries

A

19. In the United States and elsewhere, the impetus for the environmental movement has come from __________.

a. the government

b. elite intellectual groups

c. the grass roots and citizen protest

d. lack of education

e. children

C

20. Despite certain conflicts, global environmentalism, more than any other widespread movement, has come to symbolize __________ thinking.

a. practical

b. cynical

c. wishful

d. one-world

e. futuristic

D

1. How did Bretton Woods lay the foundation for globalization?

a. By creating a secret world government

b. By demonstrating that countries can work together

c. By creating a set of agreements and institutions to promote free trade

d. By exchanging product samples from different countries

The correct answer is c. The Bretton Woods system, as it came to be called, founded institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which promoted international trade and sought to link economies and currencies, in order to increase global interdependence and prevent future global conflicts. (1135)

2. How did the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank advance neo-liberal economics?

a. By loaning money to developing nations without preconditions

b. By loaning money to developing nations that had state-run companies

c. By regulating the economies of developing countries

d. By loaning money to developing nations that agreed to privatize state-run companies, lowered protectionist tariffs, and cut taxes

The correct answer is d. The IMF and World Bank have become crucial sources of support for many developing countries, but they also have been able to use this support as leverage to demand that those countries adopt the same economic philosophy espoused by the Bretton Woods system, namely, opening their own citizens up to competition from around the world and moving from state-controlled companies and prices to private companies and market prices. 1135

3. Which of the following is NOT a way in which money has become internationally mobile?

a. An international checking system

b. Foreign direct investment

c. International credit cards

d. International currency markets

The correct answer is a. For companies, investors, and private consumers, it has become more possible to do business or make transactions anywhere in the world and with any currency than at any time in world history, including the period of time when most of the world economy used Spanish silver. Certain financial practices, however, such as checking, have not become globalized—yet.1136

4. The sporting goods company Nike is a good example of globalization because in one five-year period it closed twenty factories and opened another thirty-five in countries all over the world. Why did Nike move these factories?

a. Its executives grew bored with one country and wished to live in a new one.

b. Nike simply could not find enough good workers for its factories.

c. Nike moved its factories to wherever the labor costs were the lowest and the environmental and health regulations the most lenient.

d. Nike's factories needed more energy than most nations could provide.

The correct answer is c. Globalization has made it easier than ever before for a corporation to shut down a factory in one country and quickly reopen it in a different country where workers are paid less and production costs are cheaper, thus allowing for higher profits. 1137

5. Which of the following best describes the massive increase in international migration of the world's peoples during the era of globalization?

a. It has allowed those who were previously unhappy to find happiness.

b. It has allowed many to find work and shelter, but it has also victimized others in new ways.

c. It is mostly just tourists.

d. It has totally erased all national cultures and boundaries.

The correct answer is b. Many millions of people have been able to move to better economic situations in other parts of the world and thus escape once unavoidable poverty in their homelands; others have been able to flee political, ethnic, or religious persecution by finding safe havens elsewhere, often in Western Europe, Australia, or North America. However, such open borders have also allowed disturbing trends such as the trade in sex slaves from poorer countries to wealthier countries.1137

6. How did globalization affect those within wealthy nations, especially the United States?

a. It made everyone in those nations far wealthier.

b. It drained the wealth out of those nations.

c. It made Americans more appreciative and tolerant of other cultures.

d. It caused millions of Americans to lose their well-paying jobs, while millions of others have become wealth

The correct answer is d. Millions of manufacturing jobs have been moved by companies to countries where workers earn much lower wages, ultimately lowering the prices of those companies' products for the average consumer but causing many Americans to have to find new work, often for less money.

7. What did the Seattle protesters of 1999 mean by their slogan "No globalization without representation"?

a. Globalization was a process managed by large corporations that was not meant to benefit ordinary people and in which ordinary citizens of the affected countries had no say.

b. Globalization was hard to depict visually, and they needed more charts, graphs, and images to represent it properly.

c. Democracy was more important than economic growth.

d. They wanted a cut of the World Trade Organization's profits.

The correct answer is a. Though the institutions driving globalization, such as the WTO, claimed that the process was benefiting people all over the world, it began to seem more and more that globalization was really just benefiting massive transnational corporations that were not answerable to any ordinary people or even to any governments.

8. Which of the following best describes the "American Empire" of the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century?

a. A far-flung empire of colonies

b. A once-powerful empire breaking apart

c. A nonterritorial empire of economic, military, and cultural power

d. A misnomer; a term used by envious countries

The correct answer is c. Though the United States in the post-World War II period has not claimed specific territories as its own, as most past empires had done, it arguably has come to exercise more influence over more people and more places than any other empire ever, through its vastly superior military power, the near-universal appeal of its popular culture and consumer products, and the amazing economic opportunities it has been able to offer to potential allies.

9. Which of the following best describes the appeal of the South American revolutionary Che Guevara to people in both the first and the third world?

a. He was a classic Latino sex symbol.

b. He stood for nonviolence in a time of war.

c. He stood up for the blue-collar working class hurt by globalization.

d. He represented an alternative to the materialism of the West and the industrial totalitarianism of the Soviet world.

The correct answer is d. During the 1960s and 1970s, many young people in the West, in the Soviet world, and in the third world yearned for a revolutionary alternative to the greed and consumerism of capitalism as well as to the soul-crushing bureaucratic life under Soviet communism, and they saw Che Guevara as the personification of that alternative.

10. How did women's liberation feminists differ from equal rights feminists?

a. Women's liberation feminists wanted women to have more rights than men; equal rights feminists merely wanted women to have the same rights as men.

b. Women's liberation feminists wanted to challenge societal and cultural patriarchy through direct action; equal rights feminists preferred political lobbying and corrective legislation.

c. Women's liberation feminists sought a world government dominated by women; equal rights feminists sought an American government dominated by women.

d. The groups were not different.

The correct answer is b. Through staged actions, consciousness-raising groups, and public discussion, the women's liberation movement sought to transform popular cultural notions about the role of women, rather than just working for legislation to be passed.

11. Why did African feminists resent American and European feminists opposition to traditional African cultural practices such as polygamy and female circumcision?

a. They felt American and European feminists were stealing their thunder on the issue.

b. They did not believe such practices existed in Africa.

c. They were strongly in favor of such practices.

d. Western feminists could easily begin to sound like colonial missionaries and rulers.

The correct answer is d. Even if African feminists did not approve of the more barbaric or shocking examples of misogyny in traditional African culture, many of them felt that white American and European women did not share their concerns with issues of motherhood, marriage, and poverty and in any case had no right to tell African feminists or any Africans what to do.

12. Which of the following best describes the response of global fundamentalism to modernity?

a. A selective rejection of modernity to create an alternative, more religious modernity

b. A total rejection of modernity

c. A total embrace of modernity

d. A total denial of the existence of modernity

The correct answer is a. Though opposed to the scientific and secular focus of modernity, religious and nationalistic fundamentalisms have incorporated many aspects of modernity, such as technology to spread their message and organize.

13. Which of the following best describes the term "jihad" as intended by the original founders of Islam?

a. Violent and indiscriminate killing of non-Muslims

b. Submission to one's passions

c. Retreat into an inner sanctuary of religious purity

d. Struggle to please God

The correct answer is d. Though the term came later to mean mostly violent armed struggle against (usually) non-Muslim enemies, "jihad" originally was intended to mean a deep spiritual struggle to eliminate the corrupting influences, internal and external, that might lead one to stray from God's path.

14. Which best characterizes the strategies pursued by Islamic fundamentalist groups for achieving their political aims?

a. Most attempted to gain power through elections and placing members in influential government and social positions, but some sought violent revolutions.

b. A few attempted to gain power through elections, but most were intent on violent revolutions.

c. They focused only on attacking non-Muslims.

d. They focused only on launching attacks outside the Islamic world.

The correct answer is a. Though some Islamic fundamentalist movements such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda sought to overthrow secular or monarchist rulers with violence and also targeted non-Muslims inside and outside of the Islamic world, most attempted to win positions of influence through elections and gaining converts or placing members in powerful positions.

15. Why did Osama bin Laden and the leaders of al-Qaeda come to declare the United States as their enemy?

a. They wanted to scare Americans into converting to Islam.

b. They objected to the American military presence in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War.

c. They hated Christianity.

d. They mistakenly thought the United States was an extension of the Soviet Union, which had been their enemy in Afghanistan.

The correct answer is b. Osama bin Laden saw the American military and U.S. foreign policy as propping up a corrupt and sinful regime in Saudi Arabia while using American military bases in the Arabian peninsula to threaten Muslims in the heart of the Islamic world.

16. In what way has mainstream Christianity responded to the effects of globalization?

a. By splintering into ever-smaller subgroups

b. By losing touch with its moral center

c. By addressing the moral and ethical problems of social justice, human rights, and the suffering of the poor throughout the world

d. By pulling into a defensive, insular shell

The correct answer is c. A new form of global Christianity has developed in response to globalization, one that seeks to address problems of injustice, poverty, and human rights for all people rather than attempt to convert or conquer non-Christians.

17. Which of the following is NOT one of the three major ways in which the earth's environment has been radically impacted by the changes of the last half-century?

a. Unprecedented population growth

b. Exorbitant prices of fossil fuels

c. Vast use of fossil fuels, especially oil

d. Phenomenal economic growth

The correct answer is b. With just a few exceptions in the 1970s and at the end of the first decade of the new millennium, energy resources, especially fossil fuels, have remained plentiful and cheap enough that modern nations and developing nations alike have used them in ever-increasing amounts.

18. What was a major difference between Western environmental movements and environmentalists in developing countries?

a. Western environmentalists cared only for the environments of their own countries; environmentalists in developing countries cared for the whole planet.

b. Western environmentalists lacked the base of popular support that environmentalists in developing countries had.

c. Western environmentalists were more concerned with issues of pollution and limiting growth; environmentalists in developing countries were more concerned with issues of food security and social justice.

d. Western environmentalists were more concerned about people; environmentalists in developing nations were more concerned with endangered species of animals.

Correct. The correct answer is c. Whereas environmental movements in the West often push for preserving natural habitats, environmentalists in developing nations have been less concerned with protecting nature for the sake of animals than with maintaining the food sources and ways of life of threatened indigenous populations.

19. What was the world's reaction to the United States' refusal to sign on to the Kyoto protocol?

a. Sympathy

b. Resignation

c. Anger

d. Relief

The correct answer is c. Because the Kyoto protocol was a treaty that required nations to limit their carbon dioxide emissions, a requirement that 164 countries—including most of the world's industrialized nations—agreed to, and because the United States is by far the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide (and other pollutants), the refusal of the United States to sign the protocol was offensive to many nations, especially those developing countries that felt it was unfair that they should be limited in their industrial capacity even though they had not attained the same level of industrialization as the United States. 1165